The Little Things
by GwenBrightly
Summary: Companion piece to Of Milk and Cookies. It's the little moments that make life as a ninja a never ending roller coaster ride of laughter, tears, and epic adventures. First up: Nya teaches Lloyd how to steer the Bounty.
1. Flying for Dummies

**This will be a companion piece to Of Milk and Cookies. I plan to put the stories that I wasn't quite able to fit into it here, as there are many left to tell. Chapters will likely not be in chronological order, but that will give me the freedom to explore new things without feeling limited to a specific timeline so that's okay! I hope you enjoy this new chapter in the OMAC universe! This first chapter was actually written for one of the fanzines on Tumblr, and I have been waiting months to be able to share it with you! I hope you enjoy "Flying for Dummies", which is set before the season 1 episode titled The Snake King!**

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"Got any…. 4's?" Lloyd asked, boredom tinging his voice. There wasn't a whole lot to be done on the Bounty currently (the others were off on a mission, and his uncle was off doing… something), and this was far from exciting. Nya scanned the stack of playing cards she was holding. He waited impatiently.

"Nope. Go fish." the boy gave a long-suffering sigh and plucked a card from the middle (because convenience was for losers) of the pile.

"Okay, my turn," stated Nya, sounding only slightly more enthusiastic than Lloyd, "Got any 7's?" he eyed his dwindling supply of cards dejectedly, but ultimately handed over several.

"What about…. 3's? I'm pretty sure you have at least 2 of them." She speculated, watching his expression change from mere boredom to annoyance. Tossing her the last of his cards, Lloyd complained,

"Aw… _Come on…._ how did you know?_"_ he pointed at her impressive collection of matches and continued.

"You gotta be cheating… no one's _that_ good at Go Fish…" The teen shrugged.

"Your face told me _everything _I needed to know, Lloyd. I'm _not _cheating, I promise. Just better at focusing." the boy didn't look like he believed her.

"You wanna play another round, or?" she inquired, not really thrilled with the idea herself. Lloyd shook his head vigorously.

"No… _Please no. _Isn't there _anything _else we can do?" he begged. Nya frowned for a moment, thinking.

"We could… play Candy-land?"

"Nope"

"Draw a picture?"

"Nuh-uh."

"…Start a load of laundry?" Lloyd stared at the teen as though she were crazy, complaining,

"You actually think I'd do that willingly so soon after the pink gi incident? It took me _hours _to get the color out_…_"

"Hm…" The floorboards creaked as the flying ship shifted positions slightly. The movement sparked an idea in Nya's brain.

"I know! Come with me!" she cried, shooting up from her chair.

"Huh? But where are we going?" he called after her, confused.

"The bridge, of course. It's time you learned how to steer the Bounty!"

"This is gonna be _so _cool!" Lloyd exclaimed, skipping excitedly into the control room, "You can teach me how to fire the cannons, and do loop de loops, and all sorts of other cool flying tricks!"

"Woah, hold your horses, there! Don't you think maybe we should start with something, I dunno, a little simpler? I'd rather not get ourselves killed today if it's all the same to you…" Nya asked, swatting his hands away from the steering wheel before he could give it a good spin.

"Oh… okay," the boy replied. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he made a show of reigning in his excitement.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Maybe the basics? Like what the different buttons do, so you actually know the difference between the light switch and the fire alarm and don't wake up the entire ship at 3 AM?" she suggested.

"C'mon Nya, no one's _that _dumb," Lloyd protested with another eye roll.

"Well, actually…"

"Wait – seriously?"

"_It was dark, Sis, how was I supposed to know that the fire alarm looks exactly like the light switch?!" _Nya said in her very best Kai voice. He considered this explanation for a moment.

"Y'know, on second thought, I'm not surprised by that at all," the boy decided. She bit back a laugh.

"Yeah. He can be… a little overzealous at times…"

"You sure you don't mean clueless?"

"Well yeah, that too. But anyway, wouldn't you rather be learning about the Bounty?" deflected Nya, not wanting to give Lloyd more excuses to annoy Kai. He was becoming quite good at it already.

"Definitely. We can talk about Kai's dorkiness anytime," he agreed.

"Okay, so. Most stuff is labeled with glow in the dark stickers, now, but I'll still show you the most important ones," she began, pointing to buttons and explaining what they did. When Nya reached a smallish button near a microphone, she told him,

"This is the intercom. You can use it to contact people anywhere on the ship, though sometimes I like to use it to mess with the guys. Wanna try it out?"

"Oh, um. Sure?" Lloyd's eyes widened.

"Here," Nya handed him the microphone, "You just press down on the button and start talking."

"Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain speaking. We're in for a bit of a bumpy ride, since a group of Serpentine are headed our way! Better take cover, folks!" He cried, deepening his voice for dramatic effect.

"Serpentine?! Oh no!" she chimed in, pretending to go faint, "This is the worst possible thing that could happen!"

"Don't worry, Admiral Nya! I'll fly us to safety!" Lloyd assured her, patting her shoulder a bit harder than necessary, "Er… how… how do I do that?" letting out a giggle at his temporary break in character, Nya took charge.

"Well, first you gotta disable the anchor, or we won't be able to go anywhere," she told him.

"Oh, right. And uh, how would I do that?"

"The big lever to your right." Instructed the raven haired teen.

He pushed it as far back as it would go. A loud grinding noise could be heard as the anchor was raised.

"Good," she encouraged, "I think you might be ready for some basic steering lessons now."

"Awesome!" Lloyd breathed, hardly believing his luck.

"Just try not to crash, okay?" Nya reminded him. He smirked at her, the picture of innocence.

"Sure thing!"

"Okaaay. So. First of all, you have to turn on the thruster – that's kinda like a car's gas pedal, it's what makes the Bounty move without relying on the wind currents."

"The thrusters make the Bounty go, got it," he confirmed.

"Yep, and then we have the steering wheel, which is pretty self-explanatory-"

The big screen in front of them flashed with a notification about an incoming message, interrupting Nya's train of thought.

"That must be the boys wanting us to come pick them up. Sorry, Lloyd, looks like we're gonna have to cut your flying lessons short for the day…" she stated apologetically.

"Not necessarily," Lloyd said, a concerningly devious look on his face, "You… you could always let _me _steer on the way there?"

Nya frowned, apprehensive.

"I dunno, Lloyd… when I said _basic steering lessons, _I was thinking of a quick circle around the nearest field, not flying all the way to Jamanakai Village…"

"Pleeaaase, Nya? I promise I'll be extra super careful and listen to everything you say..." the boy begged. She weighed her options carefully.

"Well..."

When Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane climbed up onto the deck of the Destiny's Bounty, like they had many times before, they were surprised to find Nya, rather than their blonde gremlin of a charge, cheerfully waiting to greet them. It took them longer than it should've to realize exactly what was wrong with this picture. But then it hit them.

"Nya? I want you to think about this very carefully… If _you're _out here… who's steering?!" Kai asked slowly, afraid to hear the answer.

"Lloyd. Who else?" his sister replied nonchalantly.

"What?!" Jay shrieked. The looks on their faces were priceless.

"He's actually a pretty good pilot. He can even tell the difference between the fire alarm and the light switch."

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**Thank you so much for reading! It was wonderful to finally be able to publish this! I hope you enjoyed it! As always, if you have feedback or suggestion, my review box is always open! Happy Monay!**

**~GwenBrightly**


	2. Traffic Cone Lloyd

**I don't know where this came from. Or why it exists. It's definitely far from my best work but if it makes someone smile, it will have been worth writing… Anyway. Enjoy my admittedly stupic fic in which Lloyd wears a traffic cone and no one is surprised. Set between seasons 1 and 2.**

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"Who would've thought saving the world would leave such a mess?" Jay complained as he chucked a piece of rubble into a nearby garbage can. Cole gave him a look.

"I mean, there kinda _was _a giant rampagey snake, so can we really be surprised that the city is trashed?" he pointed out.

"Well, yeah," Jay acknowledged, "but why couldn't it have been something like ghosts that just phase through solid objects?"

Lloyd glanced up from where he was half heartedly picking up smaller pieces of clutter and said, "Now _that _would've been cool!"

"And how would we have defeated them, hm? I'm pretty sure your comics would have us believe that ghosts can only be defeated by water, and as far as I know, none of us is the elemental master of water." Nya told him, ruffling his hair. She held out a garbage bag for him to deposit the piece of brick he held.

"Maybe Zane could shoot them with ice and I could melt it right before it hit them?" offered Kai, who had been thinking hard about the pros and cons of battling ghosts. The nindroid shrugged, saying, "I suppose so. Though, we could just as easily have Jay and Nya design an attachment for the Samurai X mech that would act as a sort of water gun."

"That's all well and good, but can we stay focused, guys? I'd like to get back in time for dinner." Cole prompted before going back to cleaning up what looked like it had once been a billboard. Due to the fact that the Bounty had been destroyed, they were all staying at a school that had been transitioned into an emergency shelter and not being on time for dinner meant risking getting smaller portions. Something none or them wanted to experience again.

"That's probably a good idea," agreed Nya, "C'mon, Lloyd, let's see if there's any more garbage over by that tree."

"Aw… but that's _boring… _once you've seen one pile of trash you've seen em all…" Lloyd complained, but reluctantly followed her over to said tree. He looked around for a way to entertain himself while they cleaned, since the conversation about battling ghosts had been shut down and picking up garbage wasn't a particularly fun pass time. Bits of broken building were boring. Garbage was boring. Pointy orange things… were _not _boring?

"Hey, what's this?" the boy asked, kicking the object half heartedly. Nya glanced over at him.

"Oh, that's a traffic cone." She explained with a shrug. Lloyd must have been even more bored than he had realized, for examined the traffic cone with great interest.

"It's pointy… kinda like Kai's hair." He commented thoughtfully. Nya laughed at his comparison.

"If… I put it on my head… would I look like Kai?" he wondered, picking it up.

"Lloyd, _no, _that's a terrible idea!" Nya protested at the same time as Jay said, "Oh! You should totally do that!"

The two teens stared each other down, oblivious to Lloyd, who was, in fact, now fully convinced that the traffic cone needed to go on his head. He carefully lifted it above him, surprised by how heavy it was. Nothing could stop him now. Not Nya, not his slightly lacking upper body strength. Nothing.

"Look! I'm Kai now!" Lloyd exclaimed loudly. Jay and Nya tore their eyes away from each other. Zane and Cole hefted a final piece of rubble into the dumpster and turned around. Kai gaped at him, at a loss for words for once in his life.

"Ohmygosh please tell me someone's taking pictures?" Jay begged.

"Already on it," Nya assured them all, "Kai get over here with your mini me. Wu's gonna die when he sees this."

"Can you hurry up please? This thing's getting heavy…" Lloyd complained, peeking out from under the rim of the cone as Kai sighed and joined him for a picture. He couldn't really see much of anything, but getting a laugh out of the others was worth it.

"Y'know, Kai, I think he might just wear the whole pointy look better than you." Cole teased, sounding rather proud of himself. Kai glowered at him, though everyone knew he wasn't too mad about it.

"Actually, my hair is _spiky _not pointy and-"

"Whatever. Can you please just get this thing off of me?" Lloyd interrupted, "I think it might be stuck!"

And that was how 5 teenagers and one small boy had to explain to the cashier at a nearby grocery store why they needed to buy the largest jar of peanut butter possible to use as a lubricant to help remove a traffic cone from said small boy's head following a misguided attempt at comedy. Neither the cashier, nor Wu were impressed by this dramatic tale, though the pictures would live on well into the next decade, if not longer. After all, no one would ever be able to forget the incident dubbed as _Traffic Cone Lloyd._


	3. Fun With Fractions

**Hello, all! I've been so bogged down in my final quarter of student teaching that I haven't been able to write much lately. Take this drabble as a sign of life from me :') I know it's short, but I like to think its fun.**

**Enjoy Cole being a math nerd!**

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"I dunno, Lloyd. Just because those taffies are 25% off, doesn't mean they're a better deal than these High Chews." Cole commented as they rounded the corner of the candy isle, sounding skeptical.

"But they might be…" Lloyd insisted.

"True… do you know how we could find out for sure?" the master of earth asked.

"Uhhh…"

"Here," he said, grabbing a package of taffies and handing them to Lloyd, "what's the serving size for these?" t small boy examined the information on the back of the bag while Cole grabbed a bag of HI Chews. Both were oblivious to the presence of the rest of their family.

"5 pieces. And there are 7 total servings."

The teen nodded thoughtfully.

"How much candy is that in all?"

"5 time 7? That's… 25…30..35… 35 pieces." Lloyd answered, counting 5's on his fingers.

"That's right, Lloyd. And the HI Chews have about 30 pieces per bag. That's pretty close, but not exactly the same." Cole stated. Lloyd nodded solemnly.

"Okay," he started, "So the HI chews cost $3, and the taffies cost $4 normally. But they're on sale today, so they're uh..." he looked to Cole for help.

"25% is the same as ¼. What's ¼ of 4, Lloyd?" the master of earth prompted. The boy considered this for a moment.

"1. Which means they're $1 off. And that's uh, $3?"

"Not too shabby," replied Cole with a smile. Lloyd's eyes lit up.

"Then both the HI Chews and the taffies cost the same amount? Weird... That makes the taffies a better deal, right? Since there's more pieces in the bag?" the older boy slung an arm around his shoulders.

"Heh, whaddya know? Guess you were right all along green bean!" he declared.

"You should really listen to me more often. Nya says I'm super smart, and she's _never _wrong." Lloyd told him, hugging the taffies.

"I know better than to argue with that logic." Cole assured him. He placed the HI Chews back on the shelf, only then noticing that the others had been standing there the whole time.

"Wow, you two. That was some impressive work," Nya commented with a bemused smile.

"Yeah, Cole. I didn't know you were so into math," added Jay. He snatched the bag of candy and tossed it into their cart. The master of earth shrugged.

"Oh, uh, thanks."

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**Thank you for reading this, even if it was extremely short! I finish college in a few weeks, and then I should be more active again. Feel free to leave reviews if you liked this incredibly nerdy drabble!**


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